Funding increase of 78p for independent carers 'just not enough'

A planned funding increase of 78p for independent care providers is "crazy" and "just not enough", a care worker has said.

Julie-Anne Hosick said those in the sector feel "underappreciated" and like they are being "pushed backwards financially".

The Independent Health & Care Providers (IHCP) has issued a warning that the Department of Health's (DoH) decision to increase the homecare tariff by 78p per hour (3.6%) for 2026/27 risks destabilising frontline services.

The DoH said the uplift "incorporates the relevant increases to the National Living Wage and recent changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions, along with further separate inflationary increases".

"It is appreciated that any independent provider, based on their local business model, may take a different view," it added.

There are approximately 24,000 independent care home and home care (domiciliary) staff in Northern Ireland. About 11,500 of those work in care homes.

The social care workforce is the lowest paid across the health and social care system.

Staff deliver more than 80% of social care in Northern Ireland, mainly domiciliary services at home and within care facilities.

The IHCP previously said they had stopped talking to the health minister since his "U-turn" on paying their staff the Real Living Wage.

In November 2025, Mike Nesbitt announced doctors, nurses, and auxiliary staff would be given pay parity with colleagues in other parts of the UK, but the offer did not include care workers in the independent sector.

Speaking to BBC News NI, Hosick, a care worker with Connected Health, said many care workers are leaving the profession due to the financial strain.

"People who absolutely love this job and have an amazing relationship with our service users, but financially just can't keep up and they've no other option but to leave," she said.

"You just feel underappreciated because of the nature of the work – many of our carers remain on minimum wage and the current cost pressures only reinforce the reality of it."

Hosick added that the recent increase of fuel payments have added to the pressure and the 78p increase is "just not enough to cover what the carers on the ground are doing".

The DoH said it "understands that this will be having a significant impact for the public and the business sector, including those who work within the Health and Social Care family".

"This is the subject of wider engagement across government. It is for each employer to consider how their employees could be supported, including in the context of their employees' terms and conditions."

Hosick added: "In the private sector we do the exact same as [workers in the department] providing the vital hands-on support that some of the most vulnerable people in society need, often working long hours and under emotionally and physically demanding conditions.

"So it just feels like we're being pushed backwards financially.

"Without [an increase in funding] we're facing staff shortages and carers deserve fair compensation, proper support and acknowledgement for the critical role that we're doing every single day.

"The recognition that we deserve doesn't reflect on what we're getting," Hosick said.

The IHCP emphasised that the 78p figure represents an increase to the tariff rate paid to providers, not a 78p pay rise for carers.

From that tariff, providers must a variety of costs including wages, employer National Insurance contributions, statutory sick pay costs, supervision, insurance and travel expenses.

Pauline Shepherd, chief executive of the IHCP, told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme that the 78p increase "goes nowhere near meeting the inflation".

"This has been going on since November, we got in a position of the department saying that they feel that the costs are fully met – us saying that they're not but the department is refusing to look at the evidence that we have and they won't engage on it," Shepherd said.

"We have asked the department to give us a breakdown of how they come to the methodology of how they come to the figure – we can't get that from them.

"The independent sector just can't continue with this, the real living wage was promised back in September – didn't come through and we are losing staff, we can't retain them."

The DoH said it has "been engaging, and will continue to engage, in a range of collaborative forums with independent sector providers".

"It would be incorrect to say that the Department is not actively engaging with homecare providers or their associated representative bodies.

"IHCP has recently asked for a substantial level of associated information and the Department is in the process of collating the response in a transparent manner," a DoH spokesperson said.